Article: Increasing the D Compiler Speed by Over 75%

[Walter Bright]

On 7/31/2013 2:40 PM, Bill Baxter wrote:
> Are you serious that you can't fathom how it could be confusing to someone than
> talking about differences in run times?

Yes.

And no, I'm not talking about confusing to someone who lives in an undiscovered 
stone age tribe in the Amazon. I'm talking about computer programmers.


> If you say something is faster than something else you want the two numbers to
> be something you can relate to.  Like MPH.  Everyone has a clear concept of what
> MPH is.  We use it every day.  So to say 25 MPH is 25% faster than 20 MPH is
> perfectly clear.  But nobody talks about program execution speed in terms of
> programs per second.

Yes, they do, and certainly in "lines per second". Google it and see for 
yourself. And as you well understand, from using the same program to compile, 
the number of lines cancels out when comparing speeds.

There is nothing mysterious or confusing about this. Seriously.


> So I think it's pretty clear why that would be harder for
> people to grok than changes in car speeds or run times.

To be blunt, Baloney!


> Anyway, congrats on the speed improvements!  When I was using D a lot, the
> compile times for heavily templated stuff were definitely starting to get to me.

Thanks!